At the beginning of his recruitment, Donovan Clingan and his family felt the need to remind fans that he wasn’t just going to go to UConn because he was from Connecticut. In fact, he said this so often and so forcefully that many fans (including the author of this piece) had started to write him off. After all, Juwan Howard has been a dynamic recruiter at Michigan (including his time as a player), and coming off a dominant season that saw him named National Coach of the Year, he would be even more difficult to topple.
But toppled he was, as Dan Hurley reeled in his #1 target in the 2022 class. Clingan, a 7’1″ center for Bristol Central High School and Team Spartan, announced that he would be committing to his home-state school, inspiring much joy in the Husky faithful. And why shouldn’t he?
As of right now, Clingan is ranked #44 in his class, the highest rank of any recruit Hurley has landed (excluding Akok Akok, who was ranked in the 30s upon his commitment, but who ended up in the 90s due to a reclassification), and the fact that Hurley got him to commit over Michigan, a school that managed to get every key recruit they wanted en route to the #1 class for 2021, makes it all the sweeter.
As for what he’ll do on the court, Clingan has the size to be an enormously impactful player in college. As of the most recent high school season, he was still growing, and he could end up approaching Hasheem Thabeet-level size soon enough. Like Thabeet, he will be coming to school in need of some polish. In what is almost unheard of in modern youth basketball, Clingan has remained loyal to his local public high school, which has undeniably limited the competition he has faced. That being said, he’s gotten valuable experience with Team Spartan on the AAU circuit, and while I expect he’ll need to develop before he’s a true impact player in college, that’s true of nearly every 7’1″ player coming out of high school.
Clingan joins early commit Corey Floyd, Jr. (who may have played a role in helping get Clingan to sign on) in what is shaping up to be an exciting 2022 recruiting class. As for the rest of the class, Hurley has several open scholarships to work with. The next target could be another New England native, with Hurley heavily pursuing sharpshooting forwards Alex Karaban (#71) and Kyle Filipowski (#45). Karaban appears to be much more attainable, but don’t be surprised if Duke’s campaign for Filipowski takes a hit as Coach K leaves. Hurley is also heavily involved in guards JJ Starling (#38), Jayden Epps (#63), and Denver Anglin (#181).
